When A Child Protective Worker Shows Up At Your Door - Your Child and the Foster Care System

Imagine being a small child, lying in your bed and suddenly strangers come and take you out of a sound sleep. The last thing you see as you exit the house is your hysterical mother who is being held back by the police, screaming at the top of her lungs, "Please don't take my baby away!" You are then put into the back of a car while kicking and screaming for your mother and taken to live with people who you have never met before.

Not all child removals initiated by Child Protective Services are that dramatic, especially if the child is taken from their school or daycare. But when a small child is removed from the home, often times it's done in the middle of the night. A social worker comes knocking on the door accompanied by the police. The parents are in a state of confusion and hysterics and the child is taken away and placed in the foster care system.

The process of being removed from the home by Child Protective Services can be a traumatic experience for any child. It can have a lasting effect resulting in various psychological disorders such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder and severe Depression, although that part of it is usually swept under the rug or blamed on the parents.

So, what could be worse then that? How about being caught up in the foster care system? Usually the child will be placed in a temporary foster home and then bounced from home to home every few months until they exit the foster care system. A high percentage of foster children are diagnosed with various mental disorders, most commonly ADHD and Depression. If the child is diagnosed with any of these they are sure to be medicated for it, often quite heavily.

Exiting the foster care system happens in various ways. A child can be reunited with their parents for example, or they can be adopted out. Some children are placed with other relatives, although this is too rare of an occurrence. Many exit the foster care system by turning 18, a process known as "aging out." When a child ages out of the system, it is typically with no emotional or financial support. They're suddenly on their own without the ability to take care of themselves. Many who age out of the system end up homeless or in jail within the first year of being emancipated.

Most children who age out of the system do so because they are not adoptable. This is often due to the child's age or special needs. Very few perspective parents want to adopt a child with special needs, and most don't want to adopt older children who come with the heavy emotional baggage that life in the foster care system places on children. So a family becomes an unrealistic dream for many children caught up in the system.

Giving Love and Care to a Child Waiting For Adoption

Most children expecting adoption usually feel withdrawn from their foster family. In most cases, many of these children waiting for adoption may have come from abusive environments. And taking care of a child waiting for adoption is a no small task for foster parents: They not only provide food and shelter, they also have to provide emotional solace and surety for every foster child left in their care.

Being thrust into an entirely new household, away from their families is both stressful and unnerving. This is the first task that foster parents take on. And this is can be a temptation as well; becoming emotionally attached while taking care of a child waiting for adoption. Foster care is not for everyone. If you're looking into entering foster parenting, you have to be ready to give it your all.

It takes more than one person to make foster parenting and adoption work. Foster care is a collaboration between foster care parents and homes, and the adoption agencies who support their endeavors. These people seek to ensure that a child waiting for adoption is well-taken cared of. Foster parents work take care of the children while adoption agencies do their own share by screening potential adoptive parents. By working closely together, foster parents and adoption agencies try to maintain a caring environment that a child may dwell in while waiting for adoption into permanent home.

When a child waiting for adoption is introduced to his or her foster parents for the first time, there may be some awkwardness and hesitation. Foster parents, on the other hand are immediately made aware of the emotional scarring the child may have undergone.

A plan must be immediately drawn up to help the child adjust to his or her new environment. Activities are also organized to help the child cope with the adjust and undergo emotional healing. This is crucial for any child waiting for adoption, and foster parents try their best to welcome the child into their home.

One challenge that foster parents must overcome is a child's instinct to withdraw from his or her environment. Foster parents will try to cure this by working with children, encouraging them to join in activities, and by helping them with their problems through interaction. This helps the children become more comfortable with their environment, and slowly, they ease out of their emotional shells and become more open and comfortable. Soon, they will begin forming bonds with the rest of the foster family.

Intuitive foster parents know that a child waiting for adoption may expect rejection, and consequently may develop self-pity and trust issues. Thus, it is important for them to be able to reach out to the child and make him or her see what a loving and caring permanent home can be. A caring foster parent is the best source of hope for a child waiting for adoption.

If you're interested in becoming a foster parent, check with your local adoption agency and inquire about the requirements for foster parenting. It will be exhausting, both emotionally and physically, but it will be very rewarding as well. All foster parents know that the greatest reward they can get from being able to help any child waiting for adoption overcome feelings of detachment and rejection and hatred is by showing them that despite the troubles they've gone through, there are sincere people who are willing to love and care for them.